The invention refers to an apparatus for manufacturing granulated material from free-flowing viscous substances that are made into drops and solidify or gel, consisting of a vessel, charged with the free-flowing substance, with a discharge opening arrangement that is intermittently opened or closed by a perforated belt that is periodically moved therepast.
An apparatus of this kind, in which a continuous slit, against whose lateral delimiting walls the perforated belt lies, is provided as the discharge opening arrangement of a tubular vessel, is known from EP 0 134 944 B1. The slit, running transverse to the belt travel direction, must have a certain width (i.e. a dimension in the direction of belt travel) in order to give the openings of the belt, as they move past it, time to fill up with the substance being formed into drops and then deliver it in portions onto a cooling belt located therebelow. Especially when comparatively viscous substances, which enter the slit space under pressure, need to be formed into drops, this can cause the force resulting from the slit area and the pressure to become so great that the belt being guided past the lateral delimiting walls of the slit is pushed outward (downward), so that in an undesirable manner, additional material becomes distributed spread on the side of the belt facing the vessel.
The underlying object of the invention is to provide a remedy for this, and to propose a capability that, guarantees that the belt lies as closely as possible against the outer surface of the vessel, without adversely affecting the apparatus.